James Marsh Professors-at-Large Program

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Biography: James Douglas

Former Governor of Vermont

James H. Douglas served the people of Vermont for nearly four decades, beginning with his election to the Vermont House of Representatives in 1972, the same year he graduated from Middlebury College. He left the Vermont House in 1979 to become a top aide to the late Vermont Governor Richard Snelling. He was elected Vermont’s secretary of state in 1980, and in 1994, state treasurer. In 2002, he was elected the 80th governor of Vermont and was re-elected to this position in 2004, 2006, and 2008. In 2009, he announced that he would not seek election for a fifth term, and in 2011 he became an executive-in-residence at his alma mater, where he teaches a class titled Vermont Government and Politics. As governor, Douglas was chosen for several leadership positions by his colleagues nationally. In February 2010 President Obama appointed him co-chair of the Council of Governors.